


there's something in the water down on earth

by dreamsheartstory



Category: The 100 (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-30
Updated: 2015-09-30
Packaged: 2018-04-24 04:32:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,321
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4905580
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dreamsheartstory/pseuds/dreamsheartstory
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>What if it had been Clarke that jumped in the water to save Octavia instead of Jasper?</p>
            </blockquote>





	there's something in the water down on earth

Everything is new.

In a way it’s overwhelming to her senses. The constant hum of machinery is replaced with silence, actual silence and the sounds of animals and trees and life. No longer under the influence of carefully regulated life support systems the air around her has taste and texture and warmth. She can feel it on her skin like a hug, it fills her lungs and it’s a heady mixture that makes her want to laugh and scream and run. Never before has the world felt so wide open to her. Even the other hundred seemed more alive from the moment they stepped foot on the ground.

No longer are they concealed away in a dark cell block, doomed to live their lives in fear of their eighteenth birthday: be pardoned or float. Still, they all know the answer, space is cold and hard and no one is given a second chance. Down on Earth there is a chance at life. There are no walls, no ceilings, no one to keep them hidden under floorboards. Every breath is freeing as they push stale recycled air of their old lives out and take in the vibrant air around them. Octavia can’t keep herself from touching every tree and flower, or running after each creature that they see. So long has she been locked away this world seems immense and wondrous.

She wants everything.

When they get to the river, the first water they have found, her skin itches with the desire to feel it. Water was a precious resource on the ark, not something you dipped yourself into, letting it hold you up and wash away all the aches of life. The ark was a prison for all of them, but most of all for her, the girl who should never have been born. Before she can think that she doesn’t even know how to swim she’s pulling off her pants. She doesn’t stop to think that there could be something in the water, she just moves to it, as if she’s tethered and the current is reeling her in. She can hear Jasper behind her and rolls her eyes. Boys are everything her brother said they would be.

The rocks are rough and sun warmed under her feet, jagged edges pressing into soft flesh. Why did their ancestors ever leave this place? It is more brilliant than the stories of old. She can hear the river rushing by as if it were a living thing. Water running over rocks so deep she can’t see the bottom. It’s now or never. She’s never felt more alive and she wants to know what it is like to be submerged, immersed. She wants to wash away the last remnants of the ark and the life it took from her.

“Octavia, what the hell are you doing?!” Clarke’s voice rings across the clearing, panicked.

When she turns she sees the look of stunned desire on Clarke’s face turn into worry, as if her footsteps towards the edge flipped a switch in the other girl’s head. Octavia knows exactly what she’s doing – whatever the hell she wants, because no one down here can stop her, not even the gorgeous blonde. She almost smiles and she doesn’t know if it’s for Clarke or for herself but she turns, runs, and leaps off the small cliff.

And she’s falling. Falling is so different here on Earth, she can feel the ground’s pull on her, the heavy weightedness of it as the air whips past her. Water rushes up around her and it’s cold, so much colder than she expected, it forces the air from her lungs. She feels like she is floating, held aloft by the water she can feel tug her downstream. It’s almost like being in zero G in space but instead of nothing, there’s a soft pressure holding her up, connecting her, as if a part of the water, not apart from it. She bobs to the surface, spitting water from her mouth and dips her head under to smooth her hair back again. When she resurfaces Clarke is watching her and she catches the other woman’s eye.

There’s that look on Clarke’s face again. Wonder, amusement, desire, happiness. It warms her up as the water leeches heat from her skin. She wants to pull the blonde in and watch her come alive as the water washes away her past. She wonders if her eyes will be bluer when what happened to them in space is nothing more than an old memory.

“Octavia!” Monty calls, “We can’t swim!”

As if she didn’t know, besides, who needs to swim when the water holds you up. “No, but we can stand.” She smiles, and laughs as her feet press into the sandy bottom of the river. The air against her damp flesh sends a shiver through her and a laugh bubbles up.

“Wait, there’s not supposed to be a river here.”

“Well there is so take off your damn clothes,” Finn says.

They’re laughing, all of them, and it’s stunning. When have they laughed together? Never. Not on the way down, not in confinement, and before? For Octavia there was no before. This world is nothing like they expected, better than they ever imagined in their dreams. And the more Clarke laughs the bluer her eyes get until they rival the color of the sky. Octavia thinks they might be the prettiest color she’s ever seen. She slicks back her hair, as she watches Clarke start to strip, her tongue darting out to lick the water from her lips. This is worth the terrifying fall to Earth.

Jasper is staring, at first she thinks it’s at her, given the way he was talking earlier, but then she can feel it in the water, a tremble behind her.

“Octavia, get out of the water.” Jasper’s voice is urgent.

She turns but it’s too late, she can feel it almost on her.

“Get out of the water now!”

Teeth bite into her leg and she’s thrown sideways into the lake. Water fills her nose and mouth. She choking. She tries to spit it out, tries not to breathe it in, but she’s underwater and she doesn’t know how to swim. Of all the things that would kill her she didn’t think it would be the Earth. The pain in her leg is overwhelming unlike anything she’s ever felt. She can feel her heartbeat in her leg, the sting of the water where the monster still has a hold of her. Her head breaks the surface and she gulps down air, screaming before being pulled under again. This is how she will go, she knows it.

She doesn’t want this to be the end. The monster is toying with her, bringing her up to the surface for air, and dragging her around the lake. Her heart beat is rapid, thick against the inside of her ribcage. Everything she knows flashes before her in a terror. She can’t breathe fast enough, her heart can’t beat enough and she can’t move for the pain in her leg.

Then suddenly the beast lets go.

Octavia is left panicked, in open water and she’s flailing, trying to stay above the surface. She can hear shouting but she doesn’t know if the sounds are her own or someone else’s. She wants to get to shore but she can’t slow down enough to figure out which direction to turn. She hardly knows which way is up as she spits out mouthfuls of river water. Strong arms wrap around her, and suddenly there’s a curtain of blonde hair in her face.

“I’ve got you,” Clarke’s voice is calm in her ear.

The others are screaming, and she can feel the water move around them, the same ripple from before the beast attacked. Her breathing is shallow and quick and she can’t think. Clarke is holding onto her, dragging her to shore, up on a rock, urging her to keep moving. She feels the stillness of the Earth under her again as they lay in a shallow pool of water on a flat rock. Even on land it still feels like she’s flailing, weightless in the water, spinning out of control. It’s all she can do to try to breathe.

Her heart is pounding so hard she thinks it might burst in her chest, and each breath leaves her needing another until her lungs burn with it. Octavia coughs, spitting up water and panic in turns until she feels a hand on her face, brushing back her hair. “I’ve got you,” Clarke whispers.

Octavia looks up to see blue eyes, bluer than anything she’s ever known and counts the points of the crystal starburst around Clarke’s pupil. Her breathing slows but the adrenaline pumping through her blood is like being kicked. She feels like she’s drowning again and the only thing keeping her safe is the lifeline of Clarke’s blue eyes and her hand soft and warm on her hip. She lunges forward wrapping Clarke in a hug, not caring that the movement sent a wave of pain rolling through her. She needs to feel Clarke against her to know they’re both alive.

“Thank you,” the words are more breath than sound against Clarke’s cheek as they spill out of Octavia’s throat which is already raw from screaming.

Clarke pulls away, looking at the blood on her hand. “You’re gonna be okay.” She’s ripping her own shirt for something to tie around Octavia’s leg, to stop the bleeding. Octavia reaches out for her, not yet ready to let go. There’s something in the calm surety of Clarke’s voice that makes her believe she will be okay. She sits up and leans into her, resting her chin on Clarke’s shoulder.

“Thank you.”

\---------------------------

That night they fall asleep on beds of moss, wrapped up in warm air and each other.

It should have been dark when Octavia opened her eyes but the night is alight with a glow from all around her. The night is soft blue when it should be black. The forest alive when it should be dead. Her leg throbs, but she is safe, even if she is alone. Clarke. She sits up, her heart pounding, she had fallen asleep with Clarke at her back and the blonde is now nowhere to be seen. Jasper and Monty and Finn lay close together in a small mossy valley nearby, but Octavia is alone.

Around her the glow pulses and she pushes herself to standing, leg throbbing slightly with the movement. Flowers that were beautiful in the light seem alien and otherworldly in the dark and somehow even more stunning. The glow is soft and comforting though she knows it shouldn’t be and that the ground is dangerous. There are unseen dangers in the water and who knows what the forest hides. It’s more dangerous on Earth than they can imagine, but it’s also more beautiful. She reaches out a hand brushing it over the petals filled with light that shouldn’t exist, and she feels a yearning to be closer to the Earth, to be of it and not just a visitor.

Octavia nearly jumps when she feels a hand on the small of her back and a leaf filled with water is pressed into her hands.

“Drink,” Clarke whispers.

She takes the leaf and sips at the water, “You went back to the river?” It tastes fresh and alive, as if the world has made itself anew just for that mouthful. The sweetness rolls over her tongue and she gulps the water down. The water on Earth is nothing like the water on the Ark.

“It seemed worth it. I can’t have you going into shock.”

Octavia leans in closer to Clarke, pressing their shoulders together. “It’s beautiful. I never thought Earth could be like this.” She runs her hands over the flower, feeling the softness of the petals pulsate beneath her fingers, as if the light has an energy all its own.

“Everything down here is,” Clarke’s voice is low and soft, breaking ever so slightly on the words.

Octavia can feel the other woman’s eyes on her and not on the forest, as if she is the beautiful thing and not the wonders around them. She bites her lip and meets Clarke’s eyes, even bluer in the pale glow of the night forest. In those eyes swim the depths of pain and loss that she can only imagine. They both spent years in confinement and she feels like she understands the look that haunts those beautiful eyes. A tear trickles down her cheek and the hollow in her chest aches to touch Clarke, to brush away the tears and see what this might be. Never before has she been free to try. Never before has she been free.

Her hands press into Clarke’s upper arms as Clarke’s hands settle on her hips as if they are meant to fit together like that, chest to chest, only a breath apart. Her heart is thudding against her sternum hard enough to bruise her ribcage for the second time that day but this time she doesn’t want it to slow down or stop, she wants it to carry her forward. This must be what hope feels like.

“Clarke, you saved me.”

“I couldn’t let you–” the word falls silent on her lips, she can’t quite bring herself to say it. Instead she leans forward brushing her nose against Octavia’s. Their eyes are closed but a thousand lights are bursting to life behind Octavia’s eyelids, hope and need burning in between her ribs. She can feel the soft puff of Clarke’s breath on her lips, the steady beat of her heart, the warmth that radiates off her, and she never wants this moment to move on. She has never felt so alive.

“Thank you,” she whispers against Clarke’s lips.

 

 


End file.
